Telemarketing (known as telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits to prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call.

I thought the "known as telesales in the UK and Ireland" was interesting.

Certainly, I know a number of US based "telemarketers" who would always consider themselves salespeople, so maybe Wikipedia's got that one right.

Either way, whether it's telemarketing or telesales, it's always about the same thing - opening doors and closing deals.

A lot of people do tend to use them interchangeably, but I have to agree the key part is the 'sales' in telesales.

If you expect to close the sale and get at least confirmation of an order on the phone, it's telesales, if you are just getting requests for information, it's telemarketing. Of course, most telesales campaigns end up with a lot of telemarketing work, as you are generating brand awareness, future leads, information requests etc.

I would usually class database cleaning and research as that - a precursor to a telesales or telemarketing campaign, but independent in it's own right.